Bathing..a Meditation

Bathing..a Meditation

A sense of grayness

perhaps of depression

in these holiday days..

times before

we have searched for

restoral

in downtown windows

in company of another

in comforting wine..

this morning we desire

more..more permanence

causeless happiness..

we wish for a bath

washing the hurt..

A warm bath rises

in our awareness..

stepping in to the

immersing water we

find a penetration of

watery warmth..

a body form now

is water form

shaping our bathing

with only

water and warmth...
~CC


also:

When the lightning of love for the Beloved
Falls from heaven and strikes this heart –
Know that love is also firing that heart,
And when the love for Him brims over in your heart,
Know that love for you is also brimming in His.
Can the sound of clapping come only from one hand?
When a thirsty man moans, "O water, O delicious water!"
This thirst that is in all our souls
Is the Water drawing us always to It.
We belong to It, and It belongs to us. 

- Rumi

Metaphor blindness

Metaphor blindness

in progress




https://www.nybooks.com/daily/2018/12/07/a-cure-for-metaphor-blindness/

Advent

Advent

The themes are offered:

Hope..Prepare..Joy..Love..

This is the season

for preparation..

Preparation for:

Self recognition

possibly remembering

what has been 

recognized..
Recognizing one's Self is
recognizing the Lord
religion or no..

The veiled is unveiled

revealing Joy

which overcomes and

appears as every-thing..

This is the birth of

awakening Love

and the real Reason

for the season:

The Season

never-ending...

~CC

IV

Give up to thy soul—–

Let it have its way—–

It is, I tell thee, God himself,

The selfsame One that rules the Whole,

Tho’ he speaks thro’ thee with a stifled voice,

And looks through thee, shorn of his beams.

But if thou listen to his voice,

If thou obey the royal thought,

It will grow clearer to thine ear,

More glorious to thine eye.

The clouds will burst that veil him now

And thou shalt see the Lord.

VI

This is the reason why thou dost recognize

Things now first revealed,

Because in thee resides

The Spirit that lives in all;

And thou canst learn the laws of nature

Because its author is latent in thy breast.

~~Ralph Waldo Emerson, Excerpts from his poem,

Gnothi Seauton, (Know Thyself)

Forum map:

Knowing Ourself

Joy

Luke 1: 39-56 

Knowing Yourself 

“Knowing our Lord”

Recognition of our real Self

Recognition of our True Nature

Awakening

Fulfillment

Remembering

Identity as “I Am”

Oneness

Now

Grace

Love 

Luke 2: 1-14

Prepare     Hope

      Luke 3: 1-6                                         Luke 21: 25-36   

Separation/sin/ego

Fear/Desire

Beliefs

Questions??   (Who am I?)

Recognition of limitation

Recognition of illusion

Repentance (Turning)

Forgiving

Forgetting

Veiling of our real Self

Searching for Joy

Experiencing  “I Am

Understanding is

Understanding

is 

the experience that relieves

the desire encasing our

search for an answer..

this relaxation is a taste

of the freedom of knowing

for an instant 

our real Self..

Understanding

is not 
another thought

or conception

but the noticing that

there is a fire

in which the desire

is no more

and a luminous Joy

arises and claims

ourself...

Advent

Luke 3:1-6

...the word of God came to John son of Zechariah in the wilderness. He went into all the region around the Jordan, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins, as it is written in the book of the words of the prophet Isaiah,

"The voice of one crying out in
 the wilderness:
'Prepare the way of the Lord,
make his paths straight.
Every valley shall be filled,
and every mountain and hill
shall be made low,
and the crooked shall be made straight,
and the rough ways made smooth;
and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.'"

IV

Give up to thy soul—–
Let it have its way—–
It is, I tell thee, God himself,
The selfsame One that rules the Whole,
Tho’ he speaks thro’ thee with a stifled voice,
And looks through thee, shorn of his beams.
But if thou listen to his voice,
If thou obey the royal thought,
It will grow clearer to thine ear,
More glorious to thine eye.
The clouds will burst that veil him now
And thou shalt see the Lord.
~~Ralph Waldo Emerson

(Emerson's poem, Gnothi Seauton (Know Thyself)

See:  https://thymindoman.com/2017/08/11/emersons-poem-gnothi-seauton-know-thyself/#more-3749)

Emerson and Spong sermon
https://pastordawn.com/tag/ralph-waldo-emerson/

Polarity in Play...models

(The Direct Approach)

Consciousness 

___________________________

Experience:

Appears within..

Known by..

Made of..

Coloration of..

Modulation of..

Manifestation of..

Activity of..

Movement of..

Iteration of..

__________________________________________________

__________________________________________________

What do we mean 

when we say

"I"

or "I am"   ??

I Am

(I Am no-thing)

_________   (I Am everything)__________

I am Joan

I am Charley

I am a citizen

I am a soldier

I am a Methodist

I am hungry

I am depressed

I am on a journey

I am searching

I am separate

(I am some-thing)

__________________________________________________

__________________________________________________

Words

AWARENESS

Consciousness…I AM…Knowing…Self

Thinking…Sensing…Perceiving

Mind…Subjectivity…Now

Seamless…”not two”

God…Infinite…Eternal

Remembering…Happiness…Understanding

Peace…Love…Beauty…Truth

________________________________

Experience

separate self…ego

thoughts…sensations…perceptions

objectivity…finite mind

time and space

modulation…coloration…appearance

past…present…future

abstraction…multiplicity…diversity

forgetting…suffering…unhappiness

__________________________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________________

Allowing

Allowing

this is perceiving

 our real Self:

as open space 

simply allows..

within our allowing

appearances arise and

many convince us

allowing is myth..

 appearances constrict

bringing fear and desire

with their assertions of

how the world is..

yet experience unfolds

and we find with joy

our occasional sinking

into that infinite allowing

in which appearances

appear...